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TQWorld Posts: 2
4/6/2017
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Hi folks, new to the site and leveraging it primarily to manage my own collection and not for buying/selling at this stage. Economics has never been my cup of tea so this might be an easy one to answer.
My question is regarding the values CPG places for any given issue. What is the true value for a comic (or anything, really)? To me, and this could be where I'm getting hung up, the true value of a comic is only what someone else is willing to pay for it. I could easily claim that my issue for Zoink #1 is worth $200 but if no one is willing to pay more than $1, then it really is only worth $1.
Where I am going with this: CPG has rated a book at $15 for 9.8. Sellers on eBay as well as brick-and-mortar comic shops are listing the book for $50 and auctions typically top out above that. So would this not give the book a value of somewhere closer to $50? I realize there are sellers who over-charge and also buyers who are over-eager to get a book and sometimes buyers are simply financially well-off and don't concern themselves with the price. But, that begs the question (at least in my mind) why are the values of some books on CPG lower than what the books are consistently selling for?
Thanks in advance.
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sclingerman Posts: 157
4/7/2017
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TQWorld wrote:
the true value of a comic is only what someone else is willing to pay for it.
This is a mantra here in these forums.
CPG has stated that they use an algorithm, which is understandably a company secret, involving a number of different sources in various KINDS of sources (shops, online, etc). I can see that with over 1,000,000 comics in their database - it's hard to keep up with ALL of them, and they do more than just keep up on current values.
Others have brought this up here in the forums. A number of inaccuracies have been posted (I've mentioned 2 this year). So the Admins know about people's displeasure about it. They've told us that an upcoming version of the site software will let us members officially suggest new values.
That's all I have on this. Only the Admins know more.
Here's the topic where it was last discussed with one of the Admins: http://comicspriceguide.com/forum/topic6038-out-of-date-prices-on-the-guide.aspx
We've heard nothing since then.
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
4/7/2017
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You have to keep in mind that whether a guide is online or in print it is a GUIDE and not a bible. It is impossible for any guide to have 100% accuracy. Some prices will be high and some low. Honestly? Unless you are selling or trying to obtain an insurance quote the books actually have no monetary value at all. So try not to worry too much about the values. In the end if you need to find the current values you are really going to have to do some research and find what some current realized prices were.
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Man - Bat Posts: 40
4/7/2017
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sclingerman wrote:
TQWorld wrote:
the true value of a comic is only what someone else is willing to pay for it.
This is a mantra here in these forums.
CPG has stated that they use an algorithm, which is understandably a company secret, involving a number of different sources in various KINDS of sources (shops, online, etc). I can see that with over 1,000,000 comics in their database - it's hard to keep up with ALL of them, and they do more than just keep up on current values.
Others have brought this up here in the forums. A number of inaccuracies have been posted (I've mentioned 2 this year). So the Admins know about people's displeasure about it. They've told us that an upcoming version of the site software will let us members officially suggest new values.
That's all I have on this. Only the Admins know more.
Here's the topic where it was last discussed with one of the Admins: http://comicspriceguide.com/forum/topic6038-out-of-date-prices-on-the-guide.aspx
We've heard nothing since then.
We've heard nothing since...is another common theme lately on this site. Lots of promises and please be patient but still no results or upgrades or updates on the sites progress.Don't some of us pay to use the CPG, where's the return for my money?My patience is starting to wear thin.Bring back the good old days before the Great Crash when you got what you paid for.
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TQWorld Posts: 2
4/8/2017
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Hi everyone, I appreciate the responses. My apologies if I came across as doubtful, unappreciative or questioning the accuracy. My intentions were simply to figure out how they associated certain values to books since some of them differed from what was being seen on eBay and in local shops.
Oxbladder - You nailed it right on the head. The impetus of my seeking out the most accurate value (which brought me to this site) was indeed because I am in the early stages of acquiring collector's insurance on my collection.
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
4/10/2017
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TQWorld wrote:
Hi everyone, I appreciate the responses. My apologies if I came across as doubtful, unappreciative or questioning the accuracy. My intentions were simply to figure out how they associated certain values to books since some of them differed from what was being seen on eBay and in local shops.
Oxbladder - You nailed it right on the head. The impetus of my seeking out the most accurate value (which brought me to this site) was indeed because I am in the early stages of acquiring collector's insurance on my collection.
Well, prices should get you in the ballpark. If you know you have some higher demand books then you can always search the popular online selling sites for realized prices.
As for how the pricing works ... It would be part algorithms and good old plugging in of averages from realized prices. For the most part, differences between grades is fairly accurate whether those prices match current market trends is a whole other ball of wax. I think price guides like CPG and Overstreet are pretty much old school pricing methods. Sites like GPA and GoCollect that scrape auction and other sites are going to be much closer to real prices than static guides like CPG and Overstreet. However, both GoCollect and GPA are for graded books.
edited by Oxbladder on 4/10/2017
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
4/10/2017
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Man - Bat wrote:
sclingerman wrote:
TQWorld wrote:
the true value of a comic is only what someone else is willing to pay for it.
This is a mantra here in these forums.
CPG has stated that they use an algorithm, which is understandably a company secret, involving a number of different sources in various KINDS of sources (shops, online, etc). I can see that with over 1,000,000 comics in their database - it's hard to keep up with ALL of them, and they do more than just keep up on current values.
Others have brought this up here in the forums. A number of inaccuracies have been posted (I've mentioned 2 this year). So the Admins know about people's displeasure about it. They've told us that an upcoming version of the site software will let us members officially suggest new values.
That's all I have on this. Only the Admins know more.
Here's the topic where it was last discussed with one of the Admins: http://comicspriceguide.com/forum/topic6038-out-of-date-prices-on-the-guide.aspx
We've heard nothing since then.
We've heard nothing since...is another common theme lately on this site. Lots of promises and please be patient but still no results or upgrades or updates on the sites progress.Don't some of us pay to use the CPG, where's the return for my money?My patience is starting to wear thin.Bring back the good old days before the Great Crash when you got what you paid for.
It was dying before the crash. People were complaining before then and not much was happening.
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sclingerman Posts: 157
4/10/2017
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Oxbladder wrote:
It is impossible for any guide to have 100% accuracy. Some prices will be high and some low.
True to a point. When there's a certain comic in a certain grade that you can't touch on E-Bay for $80, and Overstreet lists it as around $80, and online and local stores are selling it for about $80... and CPG lists it as $30 - something's wrong there.
Note: I've seen CPG be right on target, and Overstreet be way low. I've also seen one of the big online stores be way higher than everyone else.
But overall, yes - CPG has some they really need to update! (And I'm not talking about obscure ones or little $3 is now $4 ones.)
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
4/10/2017
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I recognize that CPG is out on prices. My statement was referring more to the fact that even if CPG (or Overstreet) had a larger, more active, staff they STILL would not be able to keep up with the changes or ever get enough sources to get 100% accurate pricing. It just cannot happen. Guides like GPA and GoCollect, which operate very differently, cannot even keep accurate pace because they only scrape a small source base.
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sclingerman Posts: 157
4/11/2017
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OK, gotcha.
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kds_comics Posts: 652
4/13/2017
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TQWorld wrote:
Hi folks, new to the site and leveraging it primarily to manage my own collection and not for buying/selling at this stage. Economics has never been my cup of tea so this might be an easy one to answer.
My question is regarding the values CPG places for any given issue. What is the true value for a comic (or anything, really)? To me, and this could be where I'm getting hung up, the true value of a comic is only what someone else is willing to pay for it. I could easily claim that my issue for Zoink #1 is worth $200 but if no one is willing to pay more than $1, then it really is only worth $1.
Where I am going with this: CPG has rated a book at $15 for 9.8. Sellers on eBay as well as brick-and-mortar comic shops are listing the book for $50 and auctions typically top out above that. So would this not give the book a value of somewhere closer to $50? I realize there are sellers who over-charge and also buyers who are over-eager to get a book and sometimes buyers are simply financially well-off and don't concern themselves with the price. But, that begs the question (at least in my mind) why are the values of some books on CPG lower than what the books are consistently selling for?
Thanks in advance.
As Ox noted - this is a guide not a bible. This is only one guide - you can check more than one online. You can check Overstreet prices elsewhere on the web - suggest you check Comic Book Realms and MyComicShop.com. These are much better indicators than eBay.
On eBay I suspect folks put free listings there simply for the advertisement of themselves and their store.
Again - this is one guide - and is usually fairly conservative on pricing. In some cases downright on the low side, as they take into account big dealers selling inventory cheap.
Just my opinion.
KDS
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